Are You Hung Up on What Could Have Been?

One's real life is often the life that one does not lead. —Oscar Wilde

One of the most common thoughts people share when their marriage ends is the loss of the hope they once had. Ideas like these are often stated: “If only she’d gotten sober.” “If only he could have stayed faithful.” “If only the therapist could have reached him.” “If only someone had intervened.”

It’s difficult to move on from such types of thought, especially when you feel that relatively minor issues or just one major issue caused your marriage to fail.

One woman told me recently she had loved her husband and had wished only that he had been more mature. In her mind, their marriage could have worked if her husband had simply grown up and stopped acting like a bachelor. She was just shy of putting the onus on the therapist saying that she wished the therapist had been more direct with him.

Although I know that there are ways in which people can and do change, they transform only because they want to and are ready to—not because someone is forcing them to change or convincing them that they should view themselves and the world differently.

As frustrating as it may be, whether the issue causing conflict is the need for a partner to be more responsible or the need to end an addiction, you cannot force another person to change.

No matter how close you felt you were to having the partner you wanted, you did not have that partner. You left your spouse, or your spouse left you, or the breakup was mutual. In any of these three scenarios, neither you nor your partner had enough of what you wanted and needed from the other spouse, even if it missed by only a hair.

It will make your divorce experience much harder to endure if you continue to think about what a great relationship you could have had. “If only he had loved me more,” or “If only she had wanted kids,” or “If only he had stopped gambling.” Whenever you find yourself feeling sad, depressed, hurt, or angry because of how it might have been, stop thinking those thoughts. Instead, remind yourself of the disappointments, embarrassments, hurt, and pain that were caused by what was missing. It’s a crucial part because you would have been able to save your marriage if both of you had wanted to change and had been able to change.

About realizing what we truly are, and that our brain (and us) did precisely the best it could have done at every single moments of life. Every single decisions we've ever made.

When trying to help others get over emotional problems and life's suffering in general, instead of trying to re-invent the wheel and come up with ideas that sound decent in theory, i think psychologists could and morally should learn from the experts in the field.